Olivier,

Thank for this great question! It is targeting the very core of my hypothesis!

The best frequency to get high spatial resolution in the brain structure to detect the waves and coincidences using electrophysiology is – based on my hypothesis – the infrared spectral regime as it is adjacent to the visible spectral region and extends to the terahertz frequency regime.

This frequency is characteristic of the molecular vibrations of amino acid side chains and other specific binding vibrations of membrane proteins, primarily of the signaling molecules and their receptors populating the ion channels and ion pumps.

(I refer to the paper Infrared spectroscopy of proteins, Review by Andreas Barth, 2007, whom you may find on ResearchGate.)

For me, the most exciting finding is not the frequencies but the corresponding wavelengths defining the spatial resolution in the brains cellular construction! They range from less than 1 micron to about 1000 microns! If you have a look to the distances of retina cells, these are perfectly fitting as appropriate distances to allow interferences between the vibrational oscillations of the signaling molecules.

In my hypothesis, interferences occur on all and any level of waves and oscillations which can be observed as being synchronous and coherent in the brain, the EEG-waves as well as all other coherent waves and oscillations. One or two levels 'beneath' the EEG-waves, the waves and oscillations of the sensory receptor cells on membranes, particularly on ion channels and ion pumps are of major importance in my view.

Those are the oscillations and waves caused by the response of sensory input into the retinal cells and/or the hair cells above the basilar membrane of the cochlea and/or the olfactory receptor neurons. And you might find them in the hippocampal formation, e.g., as Grid and Place cells.

In my view, these waves and oscillations produced as molecular vibrations of proteins are the perfect 'metering rule' and 'atomic clock' at the same time.

Hopefully, this answers your question and invites further discussion!

Ursula

Ursula,

I had to look this up! You are talking about 10e+12 Hz? Funny, I was thinking theta frequency. These are frequencies which will "shake" proteins and single molecules.

But, we agree that neurons rarely fire action potentials above 100 Hz, so how are these frequencies generated ? Does EEG have the resolution for 10e+12 Hz?

I think waves and oscillations could coincide, sum, or cancel, etc.. in the brain but for me, it is imperative that these frequencies are inherent brain frequencies that are sustainable by the biology.

Olivier,

Didn't you ask for "the frequency that would be the best to get high spatial resolution"?

Theta waves are by far my most favorite waves in the brain (for several reasons)! But "highest spatial resolution"? I can't imagine!

There are waves and oscillations hidden behind the theta waves. And these waves are – following my personal analogies and hypothesis, resp. – molecular vibration frequencies (mvf). Mvf are inducing and 'enslave' action potentials, inducing and 'enslaving' theta frequencies, inducing and 'enslaving' mvf, inducing … – a never ending circle as long as there are oscillations in the brain, i.e., until definitive brain death.

(Hermann Haken created the concept 'enslaving' in his Synergetics – the science of 'acting together'.)

Compare it to a La-Ola-wave in a stadium. A wave of standing spectators that travels through the stadium, even though individual spectators never move away from their seats. The frequency of the spectators ups and downs is much shorter than that of the La-Ola. (La-Ola even may show standing waves and other interesting interference phenomena!)

And, as I just said, these mvf are the perfect 'metering rule' and 'atomic clock' at the same time! Fully fitting the characteristic dimensions of the neuronal brain stuff (most obvious at retina cells and or place and grid cells).

Ursula

We are in general agreement but I think the spatial resolution you are referring to becomes almost atomic at these frequencies. I am not sure that a single calcium channel for example, at a single spine of a single neuron contributes much to a memory trace that travels through the hippocampus activating hundreds of neurons.

The hundreds of neurons are separated in space (several mm) to encode the engram into a network with biological oscillations (at ~ 0.3-50 Hz).

I like your La-Ola wave analogy.

Olivier,

I am glad you like my 'La-Ola' analogy. Hence, I am extending it.

Imagine a row of elevator doors, controlled by sensors and actuators operating with INFRARED pulse generators. A 'wave' of signals opens one door after the other, the doors close automatically in due time. You manage to induce a 'La-Ola' for the doors …

Analogies of the doors are the calcium ion channels. And there are a lot of calcium ion channels in the brain, enslaved, e.g., by theta waves, to produce a 'La-Ola' of action potentials, producing a 'La-Ola' of theta waves, producing a 'La-Ola' of molecular vibration in the infrared spectrum, producing …

The 'separation in space' of several mm, as you say, corresponds to FIR/terahertz wavelength. I guess, we have to think in two levels, the frequencies of the infrared molecular vibration which are definitely VERY large compared to the frequencies of other electrical activities in the Brain. So what? (See analogy of infrared signals opening very slow elevator doors.) Much more interesting here, is the WAVELENGTH which corresponds to the characteristic distances of the molecules ('separation in space'). Perfect distance for the 'elementary waves' (as defined by Huygens) produced by the molecular vibration to interfere.

Part 2 of your question: As to my view, memory is not restricted to hippocampal formation. It's distributed over the whole brain. Staying in my holographic analogies and metaphors, the hippocampal formation is taking the role of the 'developer' of the 'photo paper'. Hopefully, I herewith induced the next question, 'What do you mean, Ursula, with 'developer'?

Bye for now!

Ursula

Before moving to the developer question, I am a little stuck with the 2 waves, a slow one and a fast one.

The hippocampus is a good place to start for this, because we know that neurons are adjacent to one another in stratum pyramidale, essentially 10 microns apart (center to center). A 7 Hz wave traveling along the schaffer collaterals (an endogenous brain rhythm we know is critical to memory) will have a wavelength of 1.4 meters (poor spatial resolution). For this I assume speed of travel to be 10 m/s. This means one crest of the wave activates the whole hippocampus at once. Higher frequencies are needed for greater spatial resolution and therefore more reliable encoding in space.

So I agree with you that we need faster waves. Let's say we want to separate the crests of the wave along the CA1 pyramidal layer to activate every 6-7 neurons along the propagation axis (~70 micron wavelength). After all, we have to use the space to our advantage, these tightly packed neurons cannot be activated at once, that would not be very specific. We need a 150 KHz wave. Can the biology support this wave (I think neurons can handle maybe 300 Hz tops for milliseconds)?

So how can we generate the types of frequencies you are talking about to get down to the level of single channels? I have a problem with 150 KHz already.

Olivier,

Sorry for escaping into a parallel e-mail discussion! Now I'm back again on ResearchGate.

I had been confused by your last question! I did not understand why you need high resolution capability of the theta waves. Thank you for clarification!

As I told you, in my holographic hypothesis I don't need at all high temporal and/or spatial resolution for encoding information. For me, 'information' is not encoded in single cells, not even in small cell assemblies. In the holographic analogy 'information' is represented by a comprehensive pattern of waves and oscillations (w/o) distributed over the whole brain, especially distributed over more than one sensory system. 'Information' is reaching the brain as a 'concerted action' of a huge amount of w/o stemming from the outside world and reaching a variety of sensory systems (visual and auditory and/or olfactory and/or tactile, etc.); these w/o representing the 'information' will be recognized instantaneously AS A WHOLE by a comparably huge amount of neurons. This is the very moment where synchronous impact – high temporal correlation of several inputs – is required. Spatially, they are distributed over the whole brain. For me, 'Binding by Synchrony' is an event which takes place when 'informations' – represented by w/o – are entering the sensory systems. The w/o are bundled to 'informations' by synchrony, i.e., they are characterized and identified by synchronous arrival. To emphasize: w/o do not encode information, they ARE the information! The 'inner representation' of an outside world object is equivalent to the sum of all w/o reaching the brain from this and similar objects.

The holographic storage of the w/o reaching the brain from the outside world requires not only the participation of a variety of sensory systems, it always requires, in addition, the involvement of a variety of subcortical regions which we attribute to the EMOTIONS.

In the German text, I posted on ResearchGate, I made an attempt to explain my view. Unfortunately, I did not translate it up to now. Hopefully a can catch up soon.

Ursula